Sunday, October 2nd 2022
First B650 Motherboard Pricing Detailed by B&H
US retailer B&H has kindly provided the first B650 motherboard pricing and it's something of a mixed bag. The company has listed no less than seven different models from MSI, ranging in price from US$199.99 to US$329.99. It doesn't appear as if any of these boards are based on the B650E chipset, but based on information TPU were given at Computex, we know that some higher-end B650 boards will cost around the same as some lower-end B650E boards.
As B&H has only listed key features of the boards, it's hard to tell what features some of the boards offer, but the base model is the mATX Pro B650M-A WiFi, which at the very least has one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot and two M.2 slots. The board obviously also has WiFi 6E and somewhat surprisingly has 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. On the other hand, it only has a front header for a USB-C port and none around the back. This type of board was supposed to start at or below the US$150 mark and we'll hopefully see a transition to there in due time.
A step up is the Pro B650-P WiFi which removes the PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, but adds a pair of unspecified full-length slots—most likely PCIe 3.0 based—as this is a full size ATX board. Here MSI has also added a rear mounted USB-C port that could be of the 20 Gbps variety. For an extra $20 over the mATX version, this seems like a more reasonable product offering overall in the now rather expensive budget segment.
At the $239.99 price point, MSI has two boards, the mATX MAG B650M Mortar WiFi and the Mini-ITX MPG B650I Edge WiFi. The boards have a pre-installed I/O shield, which helps identify the rear port configuration. As such, we know that both boards come with a 20 Gbps rear mounted USB-C port and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. The Mortar has two full-length x16 PCIe slots, with the primary being a x16 slot. There's also a x1 PCIe slot, that is most likely PCIe 3.0, as well as two M.2 slots. The Edge only has a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot due to form factor limitations, plus at least one M.2 slot and a small fan on the heatsink that appears to cover the chipset and the M.2 slot.
The next full-size board is the $259.99 MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi, which is pretty much an ATX version of the Mortar, with an additional M.2 slot for a total of three. At $289.99 sits the MPG B650 Edge WiFi, which alongside the MPG B650I Edge gets white/silver heatsinks. The overall board layout is almost identical to the Tomahawk, but here we know for sure that the top-most M.2 slot supports a PCIe 5.0 drive.
Finally MSI's top of the range B650 board in the line-up listed by B&H is the MPG B650 Carbon WiFi, which is a souped up version of the previous two boards, which gains a third M.2 slot and a bit fancier heatsinks. It also gains "proper" buttons around the back for the BIOS flash and clear CMOS buttons, but there's very little extra you get for the $329.99 asking price. All of the boards are listed as coming soon, so we don't have an actual retail date for B650 motherboards as yet.
Sources:
B&H, via @momomo_us
As B&H has only listed key features of the boards, it's hard to tell what features some of the boards offer, but the base model is the mATX Pro B650M-A WiFi, which at the very least has one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot and two M.2 slots. The board obviously also has WiFi 6E and somewhat surprisingly has 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. On the other hand, it only has a front header for a USB-C port and none around the back. This type of board was supposed to start at or below the US$150 mark and we'll hopefully see a transition to there in due time.
72 Comments on First B650 Motherboard Pricing Detailed by B&H
5800X3D+B450 offers generally same gamingperformance as 7700X+B650 for less money. AMD outperformed by themselves...
I'm an enthusiast since early 1990, I've thrown tons of money into my PC builds, but I've never felt like now the prices just went up 50 - 100% for almost no improvement.
Good luck to all, I predict much more "EVGA" rage quits from the markets in the coming months as products start to pile in stores and warehouses.
www.pccasegear.com/products/59573/msi-pro-z790-a-wi-fi-ddr5-motherboard
MSI Pro Z790-A Wi-Fi DDR5 $479.00 AUD
www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z790-A-WIFI/Overview
They're probably also sitting on a load of B550 boards which needs to get sold first. Kinda like the Nvidia situation. If I where running a business I would do the same.
If you don't want to throw cash out of the window, just wait. Prices will go down. That's how capitalism works. Be patient.
Also I wouldn't cheap out on the boards, otherwise you'll end up with turds like the Intel B660 boards with bad VRM cooling & thermal throttling. Who wants that? :rolleyes:
Essentially very similar in spec with ALC1200.
The B650M motherboard has only Pci-express 4.0 for graphics and M.2 and even has similar number of fast USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C and Type-A so i really don't know where the $60 difference is from, it's the same Manufacturer, same series, extremely similar specs, same store (and B&H is an official MSI authorized distributor iinm).
It seems to me only $10 difference or so is justified between them.
AMD must be reminded (by exercising your consumer right to buy or not) not to have such high margins imo!
I'm pretty sure that it's more than enough for years for 99.99% of users.
"Only" refers to cost and how MSI/AMD can potentially attempt to justify the extra $60.
A solid statement would be the next X generations of CPU will be supported in the same socked and chipset (socket longevity doesn't mean shit if they try do ditch old board like they tried to when zen3 launched)